Alvin
2020 · 20m · United States
Directed by Christy Anna Wu
Tones: contemplative, dark, melancholic
Alvin Cruz, a lonely remote network engineer, finds solace in video games and binge eating.
Picked by Zoe
The scouts
The premise reads like a very conventional millennial-malaise thumbnail—lonely guy, games, food—until you realize Wu isn't interested in redemption or epiphany, which means the film gets stranger the more you watch it, refusing the comfort of narrative resolution that most shorts desperately crave.
Wu's compositional restraint and the film's commitment to sustained melancholia over 20 minutes suggests a deliberate dialogue with the American indie tradition of intimate character portraiture, though the thriller elements remain formally undeclared in ways that feel either unresolved or pointedly subversive depending on viewing.
The decision to hold on Alvin's face during moments of digital escapism—letting the screen's glow do the emotional work rather than cutting to the game itself—transforms what could be a PSA about loneliness into something genuinely isolating and specific to how this particular person experiences the world.